Episode 8: "Common Threads" Options

[SimonBao]

Perhaps. And maybe it didn't come off the way I intended but I happen to find Uncle Ben's and vaudeville blackface fairly offensive and I was snarking on that sort of commercially embedded racism, not trying to be racist (and I used Rev. Wright because the right wing's reaction to him seems pretty racist as well). I did misfire though because I meant to use that other bastion of condescending marketing, Aunt Jemina, instead of Mrs. Butterworth. I guess I probably just saw the Geico commercial featuring her. Plus, I recently saw "CSA", the what-if-the-Civil-War-was-won-by -the-South movie that took racist advertising to its ultimate conclusion.

I guess when I see Uncle Ben, Uncle Remus and Al Jolson (and the famous [expletive deleted] Chicken featured in the great movie, Ghost World), the snark just naturally oozes from the pot to the plate. But you're right - snark falls flat on its face if you have to explain it.

Tele, did you miss it when Corporate Headquarters reinvented the figure of Uncle Ben?

I'm serious, they did. It was some major PR initiative. Uncle Ben has been reinvented as a successful corporate chairman, with a corporate history and corporate office you can visit. Uncle Ben's grains of wisdom. Considering the actual history of the Uncle Ben figure, this must be one of the most dramatic and thorough make-overs ever attempted. The brand name remains the same - and the "Uncle" part - but the mythic house servant or waiter is gone. The mythic figure behind the name is now a entrepreneurial pioneer and model of business success.


Aunt Jemima, however, has not had a similar corporate makeover. Yet.

[WhataJoke]

I encourage you to take this up with the Child Diners. Who apparently are also on some divergent path.

Be forewarned however. Bring that kind of attitude, and those kids know where their chef buddies have stored the knives. LOL

Yes well I don't find it hard to believe that the Children would like chicken smothered in peanut butter better than spicy ethnic food like curry. The parents however are a different story, unless of course were cooking for a family of four on Lord of the Flies Island.

Oh and who the kids liked the best is a red herring. Each table only got their own food.

[SimonBao]

Yes well I don't find it hard to believe that the Children would like chicken smothered in peanut butter better than spicy ethnic food like curry. The parents however are a different story, unless of course were cooking for a family of four on Lord of the Flies Island.

Oh and who the kids liked the best is a red herring. Each table only got their own food.

Whata, I realize that you have a single point that you want to make over and over again.

But if you do so, you must have the grace to allow others to simply disagree with you. Or to care about other points. Or to form other judgments.

The sort of persistent insistence that anyone who doesn't embrace your One Grand Unifying Point is a fool or is impaired or.. whatever... that is both wearing and unfair. And not the very best board behavior ever.

[notevayas]

When I want Dinner I want something that tasted good. If I want to fill myself with disgusting yet nourishing protien I'll grab my Whey Shakes or a power bar.

For Tom and the Judges to nit-pick Marks dish on one random nutritional qualification while another contestants food looks like the Mob used it to dispose of the body of Mr. Peanut is simply comedic, unbelieveable misdirection.

I agree with WhataJoke that Stephanie's was the worst dish for a similar reason. Children need the complete protein, yes, but they cannot benefit from what they refuse to eat. Children today are not required to "clean their plates" and what about the children who are dangerously allergic to peanuts? Many elementary schools will not allow peanuts in the building.

I think some chefs were remembering the "block party" challenge where they were chastized for "dumbing down" the recipes in consideration of the 80 children who were expected to attend.

And another reason why Antonia's dish won was the colorful child-friendly presentation, bright veggies over curly whole wheat noodles! I agree with the poster that described the cous-cous dish as looked like something the cat hacked up with a hairball.

I don't know why none of the chefs made red beans and rice. I found a more upscale recipe than I use at Epicurus.. for gourmets, but it can be simplified for family and you can add leftover meat.. even SPAM!

RED BEANS AND RICE
This variation on the southern staple can be prepared easily with ingredients one usually has on hand. It's hearty, flavorful, and foolproof — a good choice when you come home from work and need supper in a hurry.

Servings: Makes 4 servings.


2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 green pepper, finely diced
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
A few dashes hot sauce (such as Tabasco)
2 (15-ounce) cans kidney beans, rinsed well in a strainer
4 cups hot cooked rice (from 1 cup raw rice)
Sour cream (optional)
Preparation
1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, and green pepper, and sauté until the pepper is very tender, about 10 minutes. 2. Sprinkle in the chili powder and paprika, and cook 30 seconds. Mix in the tomato sauce, water, hot sauce, and kidney beans, and simmer about 10 minutes, or until the mixture is hot and fragrant. Serve over rice with a small spoonful of sour cream on top, if desired.

Tip: To give the beans a smoky flavor you can add 1 small chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. Mince it on a small plate with 2 knives before adding it to the beans. Omit the hot sauce.


*** Also I would like to add that while I am 100% sure that Stephanie was "saved" based on her superior prior performance, at this stage in the game, is that really wrong? If there are 3 "least liked" dishes, and one of the chefs there has the track record to become Top Chef, while two clearly don't, shouldn't the judges take that into consideration? If Richard was PYKAG'd for the scaley fish, and Stephanie for the vomitous cous-cous, and Antonia for the lack of polish sausage, drunk or otherwise, it would be Dale to win by default? Or if he fouled up, Andrew. The producers want a woman to win this year. Do we want a finale between Nikki and Lisa?

Now the superior dish will usually win, but the eliminations are more flexible, and probably should be. On Project Runway it's "One day you're IN, the next day you're OUT!" But, unlike fashion, a good chef never goes out of style. And I don't mind a successful chef who knows what it takes, making that kind of subjective decision on who should go, worst dish? or worst chef? Does anyone think that if Nikki made the cous-cous mess that she would be staying?

[teleburst]

When I want Dinner I want something that tasted good. If I want to fill myself with disgusting yet nourishing protien I'll grab my Whey Shakes or a power bar.

For Tom and the Judges to nit-pick Marks dish on one random nutritional qualification while another contestants food looks like the Mob used it to dispose of the body of Mr. Peanut is simply comedic, unbelieveable misdirection.

Hmmmm, expecting nutritious in a nutritious challenge seems to neither be a nit-pick nor random. If only the dish hadn't tasted bad and hadn't been a bizarre choice for the challenge. I chalk that last part up to a cultural difference. Curry as an inexpensive everyday family dish might be more common in the rest of the world, but it's not really very common here. If only there were a guest judge who had grown up from childhood with curry and knew what various curries should taste like.

Perhaps Mark might now know why dal and dal dishes are so important to Indian culture. You can't live on vegetarian curry alone. If he had only added some mung beans or split peas to his dish, he might still be around to take bubble baths. Of course, he'd still have to deal with the sickly sweet flavor profile of his dish and the oddball nature of the dish vis a vis the challenge.

[dcjewbear]

There is a God in heaven!!!! A miracle!!!!! A new thread!!!!

I need to start hitting the jello shots! Watching last week's show since I missed it....will be back!!!!

Well, if you were playing a drinking game where you did a shot every time someone said f*ck, then you were already toasted after you read one of my last posts as SimpleBear. LOL. I'm sorry about that, guys, but I had had quite enough of the bickering and thought that dropping the f bomb over 10 times would be the only way it would get attention.

And, LOL, it really seemed to work, so yey me!

I thought this was an absolutely adorable challenge. The quickfire said hello to me, as we actually do have both Uncle Ben's and Sateran's (sp?) ready to eat in 90 seconds rice packs in our kitchen. We find that they give Denny the inspiration to make himself a quick snack, and there are som many things you can do with the aid of one of those little packets.

Thus, I loved the quickfire this week. I loved that Spike used the rice to make stuffed tomatoes. My grandmother used to make stuffed peppers as one of her mainstays, and it was one of the first things that I learned to cook. I still make them, in fact. Everybody stepped up to the plate for this, and even the bad dishes, like Stephanie's rice pancakes, were, at the very least, interesting. I love fried rice, and, therefore, I enjoyed Dale's fried rice concoction.

I'm a big fan of Art Smith, and we have the literature. I think he's invoved in some very worthy causes, and, oh yeah, he's a down to earth, and kind of sexy Bear, proof that straight men can be part of the Beartheren.

Drew and I are both good cooks. In fact, if Drew hadn't gone on to be a lawyer, he has the talent to be a very good cook. He also has the intangibles to be a great chef. People want to follow him, so we have taught Denny to be self reliant when it comes to his food. If we're not there we know Denny won't go hungry, as we've always cooked together, and he likes to do it.

The kids were pretty inspirational, and I'm glad the chefs cleaned up their language around them. You could see that everyone really had a good time around these kids, and, as a viewer it was contagious. Last week, and this week, have made me re-think my attitudes toward the chefs. If it's something that inspires them they can be very good.

Nikki stepped up to the plate this week, and both the quickfire, and that one pot concoction were admirable. I was fond of both Antonia and Spike's pasta related dishes, as well. All in all, I think they enjoyed the children and it showed. No one was annoying, and Richard, Antonia and Nikki were fully present.

I did hate Stephanie's combining of tomatoes and peanut butter, which is strange since I've let Denny run with peanut butter as an ingrediant for dishes. It can be done, and she just fumbled it. Curry is something that can be a wow element, and Mark just made so many bad decisions. His dish looked as bad as the judges said it tasted. Lisa's food looked really good, so I was surprised to hear how bland it was. That's a shame.

I think they sent the right person home. I was pretty through with Mark when his station was so messy in the tailgating challenge. I don't think you can cook with a messy station. everything should have it's place, and he's a slob. This time the choices he made for vegetables was suspect to me. The last straw was when he said that "Tom doesn't like me". Was he crazy?

Overall, I loved it, and the show seems to be back on the right track. I can't wait for next week's Wedding challenge.

[WhataJoke]

Whata, I realize that you have a single point that you want to make over and over again.

But if you do so, you must have the grace to allow others to simply disagree with you. Or to care about other points. Or to form other judgments.

The sort of persistent insistence that anyone who doesn't embrace your One Grand Unifying Point is a fool or is impaired or.. whatever... that is both wearing and unfair. And not the very best board behavior ever.

Am I saying you can't disagree with me? Nope.

I am simply providing counterpoints to the points that you brought up.

• While the children of a family of 4 might enjoy skippy chicken and couscous the Parent(s) may very well be a different story.
• Most American children are not used to spicey curries so their like or dislike may not be reflective of the dishes quality.
• Each table only got their own food so claiming which food "the children" liked best and least is very misleading.

Feel free to form any judgement you want. I'm simply pointing out things that support my argument.

[notevayas]

Tele, did you miss it when Corporate Headquarters reinvented the figure of Uncle Ben?

I'm serious, they did. It was some major PR initiative. Uncle Ben has been reinvented as a successful corporate chairman, with a corporate history and corporate office you can visit. Uncle Ben's grains of wisdom. Considering the actual history of the Uncle Ben figure, this must be one of the most dramatic and thorough make-overs ever attempted. The brand name remains the same - and the "Uncle" part - but the mythic house servant or waiter is gone. The mythic figure behind the name is now a entrepreneurial pioneer and model of business success.


Aunt Jemima, however, has not had a similar corporate makeover. Yet.

I think the Quaker Oats Man deserves a makeover as well..

Quaker Oats Man - One of the oldest advertising mascots in America, the Quaker Oats Man became the first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal in 1877. Through the years, many have mistaken The Quaker Oats Company mascot as William Penn or Ben Franklin, but in truth, the image of a man dressed in the Quaker garb was purposely chosen to reflect the "Quaker" faith and its values of honesty, integrity, and purity. Surprisingly, the actual Society of Friends (a.k.a. the "Quakers") went to court to have their association with the cereal removed, but they lost the court battle.

The portrait of the Quaker man on the Quaker Oats popular red, white and blue package has been updated just three times since its creation - once in 1946, again in 1957 and most recently in 1972. The original 1877 image was a full-length picture of a kindly Quaker man holding a scroll with the word "Pure" on it.

In 1946, graphic designer Jim Nash developed a new Quaker identity by introducing a black-and-white version of the now-familiar smiling head portrait. In 1957, Chicago artist and illustrator Haddon Sundblom updated Nash's line drawing to a full-color portrait of the Quaker man, and in 1972, John Mills painted the stylized blue and white graphic image that appears on packages today

[SimonBao]

There's no possible Product Placement Tie-In, but a decent Quickfire I'd still like to see is one I imagined last season. After their initial "Cook These Freaky Odd Proteins" Elimination challenge.

Offer the chefs a counter display full of Asian and Latino fruits and veggies that we know are NOT covered in any Culinary Institute curricula.

Lotus roots, arrowheads, cassava, jicama, malanga, taro, water chestnuts, fresh bamboo, maybe kohlrabi, different choys, amaranth and malabar spinach, taro leaves, banana blossoms, winged beans, bitter melons and winter melons and gourds, nopales, etc.

Ask the chefs to make a savory dish really featuring at least one of those.

Give them bergamot oranges, Buddha's hands, calamondine, star fruit, guavas, cherimoya, durian and jackfruit, sapotes and mangosteens and rambutan, tamarind pods and guanabana, etc.

Ask the chefs to make a sweet dish really featuring at least one of those.

Actually, if you asked them to do both that's a plausible Elimination Challenge.

[WhataJoke]

Hmmmm, expecting nutritious in a nutritious challenge seems to neither be a nit-pick nor random. If only the dish hadn't tasted bad and hadn't been a bizarre choice for the challenge. I chalk that last part up to a cultural difference. Curry as an inexpensive everyday family dish might be more common in the rest of the world, but it's not really very common here. If only there were a guest judge who had grown up from childhood with curry and knew what various curries should taste like.

Perhaps Mark might now know why dal and dal dishes are so important to Indian culture. You can't live on vegetarian curry alone. If he had only added some mung beans or split peas to his dish, he might still be around to take bubble baths. Of course, he'd still have to deal with the sickly sweet flavor profile of his dish and the oddball nature of the dish vis a vis the challenge.

Expecting nutrition in a nutricious meal is kind of like expecting polish sausage in a meal that calls for....Polish sausage. lol

Sweet Potatoes are widely recognised as a superfood and its easily one of if not the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. And they do provide some protien as well. So lets put an end to the no protien argument.

In other news Chorrizo is still not polish sausage. lol.


But we agree that curry is a poor choice for American children. Your just giving the Judges Ammo to get rid of you at that point.

[teleburst]

Mark misses one nutritional point and loses to prison food.

If only that were the only reason he went home. If only the "polish sausage" dish hadn't actually tasted better than the other least favorite dish. If only there weren't that dratted worst food goes home rule. After all, how can you turn that into an objective standard?

If only...

[SimonBao]

I think the Quaker Oats Man deserves a makeover as well..

Well, but no Quaker could find Quaker Oats Man as offensive as everyone should find past incarnations of Uncle Ben. LOL

And if they start making over Quaker Oats Man, they may as well re-examine the University of Pennsylvania's "Fighting Quakers" sports teams. The teams are properly called just "The Quakers" but everyone likes to say "Fighting Quakers."

I get to hear local sportscasters say things like "And the Fighting Quakers brutalized and decimated the Mohawks, it was a bloodbath..."

[WhataJoke]

If only that were the only reason he went home. If only the "polish sausage" dish hadn't actually tasted better than the other least favorite dish. If only there weren't that dratted worst food goes home rule. After all, how can you turn that into an objective standard?

If only...

You mean the same "worst dish goes home" rule that completely went they way of the dinosaurs this week?

Well that's not fair to the dinosaurs, they actually exsisted lol.

And again if you want to go back to the last challenge, it's probably easier to make better tasting food when you can cheat and ignore the rules. No?

[Pita]

...But we agree that curry is a poor choice for American children...

Why?

[SimonBao]

Expecting nutrition in a nutricious meal is kind of like expecting polish sausage in a meal that calls for....Polish sausage. lol

Sweet Potatoes are widely recognised as a superfood and its easily one of if not the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. And they do provide some protien as well. So lets put an end to the no protien argument.

In other news Chorrizo is still not polish sausage. lol.


But we agree that curry is a poor choice for American children. Your just giving the Judges Ammo to get rid of you at that point.

Whata, I'm sorry. I know you will insist on proving Your One Point.

But you are hopelessly wrong. Mark's dish was not nutritious and not healthy, and sweet potatoes are not a superfood in the absence of other complete proteins. So indeed... yes... please put an end to your argument.

[WhataJoke]

Well, but no Quaker could find Quaker Oats Man as offensive as everyone should find past incarnations of Uncle Ben. LOL

And if they start making over Quaker Oats Man, they may as well re-examine the University of Pennsylvania's "Fighting Quakers" sports teams. The teams are properly called just "The Quakers" but everyone likes to say "Fighting Quakers."

I get to hear local sportscasters say things like "And the Fighting Quakers brutalized and decimated the Mohawks, it was a bloodbath..."

LOL funny the Irish never have had a problem with Notre Dame's mascot and logo huh?

[chucole]

Well, but no Quaker could find Quaker Oats Man as offensive as everyone should find past incarnations of Uncle Ben. LOL

And if they start making over Quaker Oats Man, they may as well re-examine the University of Pennsylvania's "Fighting Quakers" sports teams. The teams are properly called just "The Quakers" but everyone likes to say "Fighting Quakers."

I get to hear local sportscasters say things like "And the Fighting Quakers brutalized and decimated the Mohawks, it was a bloodbath..."

Don't give 'em any ideas Simon. U of I lost their mascot because it offended.

[SivartAlappes]

I don't think you can cook with a messy station. everything should have it's place, and he's a slob.[size="3"][/size]

I'm a very messy and unorganized cook myself. I spend much more time worrying about perfecting the dish than cleaning my workspace. And I'd definantly need to wear an apron over my chef coat as I tend to wipe my hands off on my shirt, and I'd rather not have to do laundry every single day.

[SimonBao]

Why?

Well, Pita, curries of all kinds are fairly strong, assertive flavors that do not resemble any other flavors in the typical American palette. And curries are strangers to the the typical American palate. :-)

Kids, in general and much more so than adults, just do not take well to foods and strong flavors that they're not familiar with. It can be exceptional food but if it lies far outside their experience, they aren't usually very receptive. I nearly gagged the first time I was fed a PB&J sandwich at 13, it was so god-awfully strange in every way.

The other, more successful chefs played things closer to the familiar. Foods with basic flavors the kids recognize and enjoy, and just a few novel spins and extras here and there.

[teleburst]

Expecting nutrition in a nutricious meal is kind of like expecting polish sausage in a meal that calls for....Polish sausage. lol

Sweet Potatoes are widely recognised as a superfood and its easily one of if not the most nutritious vegetables you can eat. And they do provide some protien as well. So lets put an end to the no protien argument.

In other news Chorrizo is still not polish sausage. lol.

But we agree that curry is a poor choice for American children. Your just giving the Judges Ammo to get rid of you at that point.

You can't live on sweet potatoes alone either. I don't think I ever used the "no protein" slam. I would characterize it as a serious lack of protein easily fixed by the addition of a few beans or a separate dal dish.

Since his curry tasted way off-base as well as not being nutritious and being pretty inappropriate to the challenge and didn't even look very good, it seems like his misfires trumped the Sausage Sisters' misfires. At least theirs seemed to taste better than the other misfire dish.

We have chicken a lot at family meal. Sometimes it's dry and oddly seasoned. But I eat it (not gladly). However, sometimes we have a teriyaki version of it and the chicken is naturally tender because it's in a sauce and yet the cook always heavily oversalts it (I suspect he uses both teriyaki sauce AND salt). Despite the fact that it's a pretty typical teriyaki dish, it tastes like a salt lick and I only eat a bite or two of it before I have to give up on it. So I can well understand why Simon might eat the chicken and cous-cous but not be able to gag down a sticky sweet curry that also happens to lack nutritional balance on its own.

Finally, about the sausage thing - that's why I like the fact that they have multiple criteria. Apparently the thing that landed them on the chopping block was the fact that they didn't conform strictly to the rules. And yet, their dish seemed to taste pretty good in general (maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't remember any really serious knocks to the flavor of the dish). So it didn't lose to a clearly inferior tasting dish. In fact, the fact that they didn't use Polish sausage probably was the only reason that the "in-the-middle" dish of Mark's team didn't make it to the chopping block. So, these things seem to work themselves out from challenge to challenge.